Clarification on May '09 post: "Can Christians Like Twilight"

Not at all, Indie Preacher! Thank you and I welcome the opportunity to clarify.

I'm not saying the book's author has a believer's view in mind (Christ's life, death and resurrection the basis of my eternal salvation and daily surrender.) In fact, I highly doubt it. The idea that he, Edward (they) is 'good' prevails throughout the series and thus he is redeemed/redeemable. Which is not truth: Eph. 2:8 "For by grace we are saved through faith, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast."

I meant only to draw attention to what I, coming from a redeemed perspective, enjoyed being reminded of by the Holy Spirit. As in all "worthy" literature (and I use the word worthy loosely here~ Myers is no Austen) there must be defining elements of truth. Love, justice, mercy, right, wrong, good prevails, evil is subdued (at least, etc.) There is, in my opinion, a healthy balance of these in the story to make the series a worthy read.

Concerning the comparison between Edward and Christ, I fall back on the verse, "If you (Myers) being evil know how to give good gifts...how much more your Heavenly Father." Bare with me~ In Myer's words I caught a glimpse which, once I saw it, became more and more clear, of a love so perfect, so pure, so NOT LIKE ME that I immediately compared him to my only point of reference: the One who has loved me more than His own life! I can't help but stand amazed and say "Wow! And my God's love for me is ever so much more than I will ever fully know"

People are looking, searching for that kind of love. I saw it in that woman's eyes, I heard the longing in her voice. And no, in and of itself, the series does not point to Christ but WE can, as we have opportunity. Isn't that what parables are for? Taking what the unbeliever is familiar with and turn it so that they too catch a glimpse of the most perfect Hero ever and to be able to say, "He's real and he can be yours and you can be his FOREVER!"

I recently read a cute Christian novel. It was a silly book even though the plan of salvation was clearly written in the lines (though she was clearly writing to a Christian market). Understand me...God was more magnified TO ME in the Twilight series than in that bit of fluff.

I'll close with this. I know two people who read C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia as unbelievers. The first was my husband as a preteen, the second is a friend. BOTH had/have no idea that Aslan's sacrifice on behalf of Edmund was a parallel to Christ's sacrifice for us. My husband became a believer later and THEN connected the two. But with my friend I was able to tell her the significance and hopefully the Lord will use that as a seed in her heart. Lewis himself, in explaining his use of fiction said (and I'm paraphrasing from memory) when they (his readers) do hear the gospel there is something of the familiar (having read his stories) that resonates within that unredeemed heart to draw the person closer to accepting the truth they might otherwise have rejected. He uses his own conversion and a Christian author he esteemed prior to becoming a believer as his guideline~(George MacDonald??~although I thought there was a 'w' in his name...memory going) .

I know, in my own life, that goes the other way around too. An unbelieving author CAN, unknown to him/her, reveal something of the goodness/truth of God because the fact is they live and breath by His renewed mercies every morning. Whether they realize it or not is not relevant. There are several uses of secular literature in the book of Acts and Paul's writing but a perfect example is demonstrated by Christ himself as he stopped Saul on the way to Tarsus. Christ quoted a notable work still studied today (I know because I had to read it! LOL!) which Saul, being the cultured Jewish Roman, would have recognized "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for you to kick against the pricks." The phrase “kick against the pricks” is spoken by Aeschylus (525–456 b.c.; Agamemnon, line 1624) For more examples google: The Christian and Secular Literature | Miscellaneous Articles ...

Thanks for the thoughts...and again, the opportunity to clarify AND the gracious way you brought it up!

{BTW~ if you've only seen the movie...I'm sorry. It was AWFUL, overacted and they cut much of what was good and substituted things to move the script along. (Also if you are interested in reading the series, Myer's writing skills morphs between books 2 and 3 so 3 and 4 are much better/ a lot of the touchie/feelie teenager stuff falls away, making them better suited to young adults rather than teens...which is what her initial audience grew into by the time the last two books came out. As it happens, she turned out to be a good study for action and, for the most part, appropriate attraction tension between the hero/heroine on the written page, both of which I needed to mature as a writer}

One Of Those Days...

{I know the 'o' in 'of' from the title is supposed to be lowercase...but it looked a little sad, so I let it be big.}

Today was one of those days...the weather was so perfect, I didn't feel it. When I woke up, I was awake. Went to bible study and then played soccer and catch with Arowyn. Took a walk to get a rainbow icee with her. We came home and did a rainbow Carebear puzzle together. And all day, whenever I heard her laugh I wondered if my other daughter could hear it too and thought, "Lucky her" if she did.

Thanks, Lord...for one of those days.